The story of Miami-Dade County’s transformation into a Hispanic majority county is a twenty year old story. The county was at the tipping point when the 1990 Census was taken and that tally showed that Miami-Dade was 49.2% Latino. That grew to 56.4% in the 2000 Census and the 2008 ACS shows that trend has continued and the percentage of Hispanics has now grown to 61.8%. Large increases in the Hispanic population in both Broward and Palm Beach counties have now made Latinos a plurality, if not a majority,  in the three county metro area.

African-Americans and Asian-Americans both have a growing presence in the metro area. Blacks now make up 19.2% of the population, up from 18.9% in 2000. The relatively small but fast growing Asian-American population increased to 2.1% from 1.7%.

Please note that Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach County will be explored in forthcoming postings. This posting is about the overall three county metro area and Miami-Dade.

Table One: Miami Metro Population by Race

Miami’s Latinos: A Virtual OAS (Organization of American States)

The Miami metro area has come to be defined by the large contingent of Cuban-Americans that have emigrated to the city of Miami and Miami-Dade County in great numbers over the last 50 years. Although Cubans make up the largest single ancestry group of all Latinos with 42.3% of the metro area’s  Latino population, the constellation of other Latino groups are actually growing faster than the Cuban population.

The Colon Market in the historic Cuban district of Miami. Photo by copelaes. Click to visit the original photo on Flickr.

The growth of the Cuban population has been spasmodic due to the shifting nature of Cuban-American political tensions. Cuba’s upper-middle class departed en masse once Castro began confiscating their material wealth. This first wave, the Historicos, were the well-educated upper-middle to upper class Cubans that lost everything when Communism socialized their possessions. Miami was the logical destination of choice for many of these political and economic refugees. Most started with very little material wealth but an abundance of talent and ability.

They first settled in the central city of Miami bringing a Latin vitality to Calle Ocho (8th Street). However, it wasn’t long before the suburban migration began in earnest. The migration to places like Coral Gables, Doral, Key Biscayne, and Miami Lakes was a natural progression for an upwardly mobile element of the Latino community. The migration of successful Cubans (and other Hispanics) to Miami’s best neighborhoods was helped along by the continuing in-migration of Cubans from a much lower socio-economic background (e.g. the Mariel Boat Lift). This may also account for the steeply rising population of affluent Latinos moving to the better neighborhoods in Broward and Palm Beach.

It is not surprising that the well educated and hard-working Cuban minority was soon knocking at the door of financial success and buying into Miami’s traditional elite neighborhoods, overwhelmingly populated by Non-Hispanic Whites.

No suburb was more a preserve of the traditional elite than Coral Gables. By 2008, Hispanics, mainly Cubans, have now reached numerical parity with the Non-Hispanic White population (of mainly German, Irish, English, and Italian extraction).

Hispanics moved increasingly into “old money” (what passes for old money in Florida, anyway) places like Coral Gables and Pinecrest, as well as the out-sized nouveau riche waterfront mansions of Miami’s rich in places such as Coral Gables’ Cocoplum, Key Biscayne, and Miami Beach’s Star Island.

Beyond the Cubans, Miami’s other Hispanic Migrants

Undoubtedly, every country’s immigration story is different as they provide a steady stream of newcomers to the Miami  area. Puerto Ricans make up the second largest group of Latinos and they are by and large economic migrants that lack critically needed skill to prosper quickly.

On the other hand, the influx of Colombians and Venezuelans most likely have a large contingent of those countries wealthy White elite. They are escaping endemic violence in Colombia and Hugo Chavez’s erratically careening march to dictatorship dressed up as Socialism. Like their Cuban compadres, I’m sure they hope to return to their native land as soon as sanity is restored. The big question is… at what point does temporary residence become permanent in the wait for things to get “better” at home?

Table Two: The Kaleidoscope Of Miami Metro’s Latino Population

Miami’s Huge Increase in Households Earning Over $200,000

When pondering the huge increase in the number of high income households,  one has to keep in mind that the American Community Survey data was collected during the years of 2006, 2007, and 2008. In other words, at the height of  the real estate bubble. Florida’s economy was flying high.

As is well known, Florida has been staggered by the collapse in the housing market and the latest state population estimates show an out-migration from the state. As a state that has predicated its view of itself on an endless vista of sunny growth, it has come as a rude shock. Don’t feel too bad Florida, things are worse in Nevada and Arizona!

In spite of the timing of people reporting their incomes from 2006-8, the huge increase in the number of  households reporting an income of more than $200,000 is staggering. The number of households in the metro area increased a mere 5.3% between 2000 and 2008, the number of +$200,000 households increased 63.8%. This is significantly lower than the growth of  this category in the country (84.9%).

Non-Hispanic Whites may be at parity with Hispanics when it comes to numbers, but they dominate the wealth sweepstakes. The American Community Survey showed the Miami metro area had 96,969 households with an income over $200,000 (out of a total of 2,006,818 households). Non-Hispanic Whites had 69,380 of these incomes or 71.5% of the total. Latinos had 21,599 of these high income households or 22.3%. The growth in this high income sector shows Latinos gaining on Non-Hispanic Whites . The number of  Latino households earning over $200,000 between 2000 and 2008 grew by101.9%, double the  percentage increase by Non-Hispanic Whites (50.6%).

African-Americans make up a very small portion of high income households with only 3,146 households reporting an income over $200,000. Blacks make up 19.2% of the three county Metro area’s population and yet only 3.2% of the households with incomes over $200,000. Asian-Americans make up a mere 2.1% of the Miami metro’s population and 2.3% of the high income households. Due to the paucity of  affluent Black and Asian-American households, the rest of this essay will concentrate on Non-Hispanic White and Latino households.

Patterns of Wealth: Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Palm Beach

When one examines the three counties and cities with over 20,000 people, there are some interesting patterns in the growth of wealthy households between 2000 and 2008. Table Three shows that the number of households earning over $200,000 are fairly evenly split between Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach Counties. Broward showed an extraordinary growth in high income households (+85.8%) and Palm Beach lagging at a growth rate of 45.1%. Palm Beach County’s growth may lag a bit but it is still the wealthiest of the three counties in terms of median household income and it also continues to have the highest proportion of wealthy households.

Table three lists all of the cities in the metro area with over 1,000 households earning more than $200,000. Note that two of the metro areas wealthiest suburbs (Palm Beach and Pinecrest) are not enumerated for 2008, as they don’t have the requisite 20,000 population to be broken out separately in the  American Community Survey.

Table Three: Where the Wealthy Live in Miami Metro

1  2000 Census figures for recently incorporated Palmetto Bay are a composite for the previous CDP’s (unincorporated places) of Cutler and East Perrine.

The Changing Face of Wealth in Metro Miami

Every major city in the metro area showed a much larger growth in wealthy households than total households. Whereas the metro’s number of households grew by 5.3% between 200o and 2008, the number of wealthy households earning over $200,000 grew by 63.8%.

An art deco hotel in Miami Beach. Photo by Stig Nygaard. Click to visit the original at Flickr.

As most Miamians know Miami Beach’s resurgence is very noticeable. Although the number of households actually declined by 10.3%, the number of high income households increased by 78.7%. The building boom that has so altered Miami Beach’s architecture has also altered it’s socio-economic make up.

The ACS found the number of Non-Hispanic White  +$200,000 households increased to 2,298 of Miami Beach’s households, an increase of 64.3%. Meanwhile, Latinos saw a 91.0% increase to 785 households  making that sum or more.

Miramar, a fast growing southern Broward County suburb showed the highest percentage increase of high income families (+336.9%). Miramar has a significant African-American population as well as large contingents of rapidly increasing  Latinos and decreasing Non-Hispanic Whites. The number of Hispanic households earning more than $200,000 increased an astonishing 424.8%. Table 4 shows the vast increases by Latinos earning high income by county and place with over 20,000 people.

Table Four: Increase in Latino households earning over $200,000 by county and place: ACS 2008

The Hierarchy of Water in Miami Metro’s Wealthy Neighborhoods

The physical of geography of Miami metro’s three counties’ highest income neighborhoods is difficult to capture by the Census Bureau’s system of tracts and block groups. For the most part, waterfront property and it’s many gradations of status reign supreme in determining the value of housing. At the top of the hierarchy are two types of lots that have their charms depending on your personal taste. Atlantic Ocean lots are scarce and extremely expensive. Most are so valuable that they are monopolized by high rises. Equally desirable are intra-coastal lots that have the added advantage of allowing for a place to moor your yacht.

Palm Island in Miami. Photo by Patrick Swint. Click to see the original at Flickr.

The endless miles of canals and faux lakes that have been excavated to create more waterfront seems to be valued by how far it is away from the oceanfront. Naturally, the further from the ocean, the lower the value.

The end result is an extremely linear geographic pattern of wealth with houses on water costing two to three times as much as there landlocked neighbors. All three counties have a series of spectacularly wealthy small communities on the barrier islands that face the Atlantic. Starting with Key Biscayne in the south and working it’s way to the grand daddy of them all, Palm Beach.

Further complications to accurately capturing wealth in the Miami metro area are the high number of seasonal homes. Income is counted at a household’s “first home”, and therefore many of the beautiful homes in the Miami area are not counted for income purposes.

Yet another complication is the large number of retirees: even wealthy retirees have lower incomes than people in their working prime.

Finally, there is the mixed use of the highly desirable waterfront locations: endless high-rises dot the waterfront and they inevitably bring mean household income down whether they are rentals or condominiums. The Brickell Avenue corridor has witnessed a boom in high rise construction (until recently) and it is not represented in the Higley 1000 despite a large array of very expensive condos.

Miami-Dade’s Higley 1000 Neighborhoods

There are two main areas of Higley1000 neighborhoods  in Miami-Dade, the Coral Gables-Pinecrest nexus and the luxury housing found on Miami Beach.

Coral Gable’s expensive neighborhoods range from the traditional villages built when the city was first developed by George Merrick in the 1920s Florida land boom, to more recent gated communities along the Biscayne Bay waterfront.

Merrick’s planned suburb included the  grand Coral Gables Biltmore Hotel as well as the University of Miami. The original 1920s homes  featured the eclectic architectural style that was popular at that time. They were available in various “villages”. Three of these older neighborhoods from the Twenties that are ranked in the Higley 1000 have significant Latino populations. These neighborhoods are #477, Southern Colonial Village (43.4% Hispanic in 2000); #486, Dutch South African Village (30.6% Hispanic); and a neighborhood  that came in at #683 and that I have dubbed Granada Golf Course West (47.9% Hispanic).

The large Block Group that runs along Biscayne Bay is home to Coral Gables’ nouveau riche McMansions. The neighborhood that I have dubbed Cocoplum-Gables Estates is actually made up of a dozen gated developments along the waterfront. These gated communities rank a lofty 64th on the Higley 1000 and are 42.9% Latino.

Pinecrest, is a newly incorporated suburb. Following a  successful campaign by Key Biscayne for incorporation, many of the more affluent areas of Miami-Dade County quickly followed suit. In the course of a few years, Pinecrest, Doral, Miami Lakes, Palmetto Bay and even downscale Miami Gardens made successful bids for incorporation.

Pinecrest, often referred to as “Old Cutler” before incorporation has some of the wealthiest neighborhoods in the Miami area. I have named the Higley 1000 neighborhoods in Pinecrest for the largest subdivision names in each Block Group. The Pinecrest neighborhoods also have a  significant number of Latino households: #25, Rockdale Estates-Cutler Bay Estates (38.5% Latino); #44, Devonwood-Bayridge Estates (16.9%); # 490, Mitchell Manors-Collins Heights (31.9%), and, #585, Rollingwood Estates-Town and Country Estates (15.9%).

Coconut Grove (#348), Miami’s premiere central city neighborhood of wealth had a surprisingly low 9.8% of its households categorized as Latino in the 2000 Census.

Map of Higley 1000 Neighborhoods in the Coral Gables-Pinecrest Area

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Miami Beach

The glitzy transformation of Miami Beach’s South Beach neighborhood over the last 20 years has been stunning. However Miami Beach has always featured a wide array of wealthy single family island neighborhoods far away figuratively, if not physically from the pulsating Ocean Drive.

The wealthiest of these island neighborhoods is Fisher Island (#18 in the Higley1000). It’s is relatively “new” in that it has built out over the last 20 years on an island that was originally owned by the Vanderbilts. The Fisher Island Club is located in the renovated Vanderbilt mansion. It is located at the southern tip of Miami Beach and is accessible solely by ferry or private boat. It is extremely luxurious and primarily made up of condominiums… a rarity for such a lofty ranking in the Higley 1000.

Other exclusive island neighborhoods in Miami Beach include the celebrity laden Star Island as well as Hibiscus Island, Palm Island, the Sunset Isles, and La Gorce.

Indian Creek Village is a ultra-exclusive island (and a tiny incorporated place) in Biscayne Bay. It consists of 35 mansions surrounding a golf course. Due to it’s tiny size and the fact that most of the homes are second homes, it does not make the Higley 1000.

Map of Miami Beach Higley 1000 Neighborhoods

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I have stumbled upon many tiny elite enclaves that for various reasons don’t make the Higley 1000. Most commonly because they are too tiny to register or are summer vacation spots that are dominated by second homeowners that report their income at their main residence. There are no racial statistics to report, the following places are almost exclusively non-Hispanic White with the exception of an occasional caretaker.

They are for the most part gated and the only view inside is through Bing Live Local or Google Earth. Those that aren’t gated are definitely private and off limits to the geographic explorer. If any of my readers would like to add comments about these places, it would be much appreciated. I can guarantee you that the residents aren’t talking!

Here is a map of the ten places I am highlighting today:

United States Map of Ten Exclusive Enclaves

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Northeast Harbor, Maine: Summer Headquarters of  the Social Register

Located on the one of the many picturesque harbors on Maine’s Desert Island, Northeast Harbor is the Grand Dame of Social Register summer homes. It is relatively large place for this list as it has 651 houses of which 368 are seasonal (56.5%). Northeast Harbor is a rarity for this list as it is neither gated nor private and is open to tourists.

In my study of the 1988 Social Register, 117 listees maintained a second home in Northeast Harbor. Only 11 families listed it as their main residence. Considering Maine’s winters, this is not surprising. The other coastal enclaves of the upper class had fewer Social Register homeowners (North Haven, 56;  Scarborough, 40; and Islesboro, 36).

The permanent population of this tiny burgh is 527 and one can safely assume that their main occupation is servicing the estates of the wealthy. The median household income of the townees was a relatively low $37,885 per household. About half of the permanent residents lived in rental units and half in single family homes.

The waterfront homes of the summer visitors are grand and are often passed from generation to generation with little publicity. Brooke Astor must be rolling in her grave as her Northeast Harbor $5.5 million manse, Cove End became a centerpiece in the recent trial and conviction of her sons’ machinations to score as much of her wealth as possible in her dotage.

Sailing and enjoying the private benefits of old money are the main activities although there are some tourist accommodations.  I recommend the Grey Rock Inn, a converted mansion with 8 guest rooms. The internet reviews of the the much larger and well known Asticou Inn (48 rooms) are generally poor. The Northeast Harbor Fleet is headquartered on the nearby Blank Harbor and has 400 members.

Map of Northeast Harbor, Maine

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Nonquitt, Massachusetts: A Well Kept Secret

As befitting another Social Register enclave, Tyra Pacheco’s essay on Nonquitt was the only source I could find on the internet. She wrote the following for the website From House to Home.

“Tucked away in a waterfront corner of South Dartmouth, Nonquitt is a small community, born of a desire to escape the hustle and bustle of city life in the late 1800s.

In its early days, Nonquitt was an open space of unused farmland, where a group of families and friends would retreat in the summer. For a number of years, a small colony of tents dotted the shoreline in the summer, occupied by a close-knit group of family and friends.

In 1870, this well-kept secret on the shore leaked out and soon other families appeared with their tents, within view of Nonquitt’s earliest settlers. This prompted the group to begin the process of securing what they had come to consider their land for their own, exclusive use.

Two years later, under the leadership of former Roxbury Mayor James Ritchie, the group formed the Nonquitt Beach and Wharf Association. Together, its members purchased a total of 455 acres of land. Before they began the process of dividing lots for development, the corporation established an area of common land along the shore, to be shared by all of the residents of Nonquitt.

The following year, construction began on the Nonquitt Hotel. A social gathering place for visitors and residents alike, the hotel expanded over its 20-year life to include three buildings, before it was destroyed by fire in 1893.
Shortly after the fire, construction began on a new public building, The Casino, a building which is still used as a meeting hall and activity center.

The loss of the hotel prompted many residents to build additions on their summer homes, as they had been relying on the Nonquitt Hotel for meals and socialization.

While many people still summer in Nonquitt, many of the original cottages have been winterized for year-round occupation, and new construction is well-suited for four seasons.

A good number of the properties in Nonquitt have been passed down from one generation to the next. As real estate prices and tax rates have increased, holding on to that property can be difficult for younger families.

The original settlers of Nonquitt were not considered to be wealthy, but rather, middle class merchants. Current real estate prices hint at the quality of modern life in Nonquitt. Listings for land include $1.1 million for just over an acre to $5.75 million for 3.8 acres.

Among Nonquitt’s well-known former residents are Civil War hero General Philip Henry Sheridan, artist Robert Swain Gifford, and author Louisa May Alcott.

Today, Nonquitt is a private, gated community. Visitors are allowed by invitation only, and members of the community are reluctant to publicize any aspect of life behind the gates.

Residents are filled with stories of history, but reluctant to go public, for fear their quiet corner of the world will be exploited.

A book detailing the history of Nonquitt was published in 1987. “Nonquitt: A Summer Album, 1872-1985” by Anne Morse Lydell is filled with anecdotes and photos of years gone by, but little is revealed about more recent life in the community.

“People like to guard their privacy, and they don’t like the world to know about Nonquitt,” one resident says.

Historical information for this story was gathered with permission from “Nonquitt: A Summer Album, 1872-1985,” as well as Nonquitt residents who, for the sake of privacy, asked not to be identified.”

Located just south of Nonquitt is a condominium development that has a much more colorful past, Round Hill. It is built on the grounds of Colonel Edward Howland Robinson Green’s estate and features a main road named for the notorious Hetty Green, the Witch of Wall Street…. but that’s another story.

Map of Nonquitt, Massachusetts

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Fishers Island, New York

Yet another bastion of old money, Fishers Island had 110 Social Registerites in my 1988 study. The locals live on the Western third of this 4.2 square mile island and the gated Eastern two-thirds is given over to the blue blood estates and the uber elite Fishers Island Club (known locally as the “Big Club”. Access to the island is provided by a ferry that runs from New London, Connecticut.

The 2000 Census found 289 permanent residents living in 138 housing units. The median household income of $54,000 is obviously not reflective of vast wealth found in the estates of the East Enders that number around 2,000 during the summer. The 2000 Census showed 448 Seasonal homes, easily dwarfing the housing available for service workers.

The social and economic distance between the locals and the East Enders has only grown through the years. In 1988 Nick Ravo wrote a profile of the island for the New York Times that illustrated this problem when the median price of an island home was $585,000 (“The Talk of Fishers Island; Isle’s Summer Gentry Squeezing out ‘Locals’“, Sept 14, 1988). Today, at the beginning of 2010, Zillow estimates the median cost of a home on the island at $1,671,800.

Mr. Ravo’s article also lamented the fact that the population of townees had dropped 50% in the 15 years preceding 1988 to about 350. Obviously, the rapid decline has abated, but the affordability issues continues to loom large. Twenty-one years ago controversy was stirred when the Walsh Park Benevolent Corporation proposed building 12 affordable housing units “to maintain a ‘critical mass’ of ‘help’ on the island and to maintain the island’s crusty character.” I was unable to ascertain as to whether the affordable housing was ever built, but a tour of the island via Bing Live Local shows that were numerous huge estates under construction at the time of the flyover.

There is an interesting history of the island found at The Fishers Island Website.

Gibson Island, Maryland

Gibson Island is another low key island refuge for the wealthy and it is found in the Chesapeake Bay in Anne Arundel County. Gibson Island is connected to the mainland by a causeway and is gated to keep the hoi polloi out. The island is about 20 miles southeast of Baltimore and 35 north of Washington DC.

Map of Gibson Island, Maryland

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The island had a 2000 population of 310 in 136 houses. The Census also found 52 seasonal houses (as well as 21 vacant houses).

The following description is posted on the Gibson Island website:  “Gibson Island’s rich and colorful history includes its use as a summer residence by Native Americans in the 1600’s. History also tells us that Captain John Smith sailed past Gibson Island in his voyage up the Chesapeake Bay in 1608. By 1663, the first land grants were established. There were many owners between these original land grants and the purchase and consolidation of the Island in the 1920’s. W. Stuart Symington, the founder of Gibson Island as we know it today, purchased the three existing Island farms with his brother Thomas. They envisioned and developed it as a residential community where families from the Baltimore/Washington area could spend summers. One of the early owners was a man named Gibson – it is his name that identifies the Island.

The Symington brothers set certain areas aside for community facilities and divided the remaining land into building lots offered for sale through the Gibson Island Company, now known as Gibson Island Corporation. From that time to the present, Gibson Island has had its own real estate department specifically handling the listing and selling of Island properties. Revenue generated from these sales is returned to the community for its upkeep and beautification.

The Symingtons, upon the advice of Edward H. Bouton, the developer of Roland Park and Guilford areas in Baltimore, hired Frederick Law Olmsted to create a master plan for the Island. One of the premier landscape architects of his time, he designed many important landmarks across the country, including Central Park in Manhattan. In 1925, the first Deed and Agreement was adopted and recorded which provides Gibson Island Corporation with architectural oversight powers, helping to maintain the beauty and tranquility of the Island over the years.

The Great Depression halted rapid development of the Island. In 1936, a group of gentlemen deeply interested in the future of the Island undertook the reorganization of its ownership, passing control to the Island’s homeowners, thus putting those with the greatest interest in a position to preserve the Island’s ambiance. Succeeding generations have carefully maintained the natural environment of the Island, with about two-thirds of its land set aside for recreation, forestry and open space.”

In August of 2009, Forbes magazine claimed that Gibson Island had the 12th most expensive median Zip Code asking price for a home at just over $3 million dollars. Home prices start at about $1 million.

Mountain Lake Estates, Florida: Where Blue-Bloods go to Die in Their Own Private Heaven

You may ask.. just where is this mountain in Florida. Well look no further than the towering 295 foot high Iron Mountain just north of Lake Wales, Florida. This exclusive enclave with yet another high concentration of people listed in the Social Register is small (114 houses) and completely off the beaten path of the usual Florida haunts of the rich and famous, most notably Palm Beach and Boca Grande.

The gated community features the obligatory golf course and a lovely hotel, the Colony House at Mountain Lake. Although the place is definitely low key, if one does a bit of research, you can find some information on Mountain Lake.

This is the info posted on the hotel’s website:

“Mountain Lake is one of Florida’s best kept secrets, especially for the avid golfer. A private community founded in 1915, Mountain Lake also has a top-ranked golf course designed in 1916 by Seth Raynor.

Mountain Lake is located in the rolling hills and lake region of Central Florida, just outside the small citrus town of Lake Wales. The community is within easy driving distance of both Orlando and Tampa.

Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., whose father designed Central Park and the Boston Common, among other projects, did the original layout for Mountain Lake. He also designed the Colony House, which serves as a clubhouse and private hotel. The Colony House and Mountain Lake Estates Historic District are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Since its earliest days, Mountain Lake has kept its original character as a place of great natural beauty with a style of living that is outdoor oriented and unpretentious. The community has been described as “a setting of wondrous isolation from the clutter of commercial life.”

Golf & Travel magazine named Mountain Lake one of the most attractive golf communities in America. There are 125 residences, few of them within sight of the golf course, so the gently rolling land is open and space is abundant. Mountain Lake is an ideal getaway spot for those who appreciate great golf, tennis, and croquet in beautiful natural surroundings, with an atmosphere that is warmly hospitable and relaxed.

The community has a fascinating history. Mountain Lake was founded in 1915 by Frederick S. Ruth of Baltimore, whose family owned property in the area. Ruth assembled 3,500 acres in the hilly, verdant land, which is among the highest in the state. He engaged Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. to lay out 600 acres of the property for the residences and brought in Seth Raynor to design the golf course.

In the mid 1920s Edward W. Bok, the publisher of The Saturday Evening Post and The Ladies Home Journal, was a homeowner at Mountain Lake. He had come to America from Holland and became very successful in his career. Wanting to make a lasting contribution to his new homeland, he acquired over 100 acres of the highest land of the park and created what is now known as Historic Bok Sanctuary. The “Singing Tower” is one of the world’s most renowned carillons, and outdoor concerts and other events are scheduled on a regular basis. Bok Sanctuary also hosts an international festival of carillonneurs* each year.”

*People that play music on bells in freestanding towers

Map of Mountain Lake Estates, Florida

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Map of Casey Key, Florida

Casey Key, Florida: The Longest Stretch of Mansions on a Barrier Island in the World

Located just south of Sarasota, this 6 1/2 mile of barrier island is about as low key a place as there is on Florida’s gulf coast. Starter homes go for $1.8 million and the huge houses top out in the $7-8 million region. Casey Key is unincorporated and the beaches are private. Surprisingly, it is not gated and anyone can drive through and take a gander. Just don’t stop… everything is private.

Casey Key has 447 homes of which 162 are seasonal and 285 are “first” homes resulting in a population of 630 very fortunate residents.

The Highlands: Seattle’s Most Elite Address

Good luck finding any information on this tiny enclave of Seattle’s old moneyed families. Tucked between Puget Sound and the Seattle Country Club. this neighborhood of 110 homes stands apart from exclusive neighborhoods of Seattle that bracket Lake Washington to the east (e.g. Hunts Point, Medina, & Denny Blaine). There is virtually nothing on the internet about this tiny enclave that is populated with the mansions of Seattle elites with names like Boeing, Nordstrom, and Finkelsteins.

Map of The Highlands, Washington

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The Yellowstone Club: A Fiasco of Wretched Excess or Why the Old Money loathes the Nouveau Riche

If  you really want to read about the super-rich involved in what is certainly one of the biggest real estate fiascos ever cooked up by some of the most vulgar people since Gilded Age, wade through this long New York Times article:

Checkmate at the Yellowstone Club – NYTimes.com

The most laughable quote in the article is that the members “have to be willing to check their egos at the door”….just how delusional are these people?

It’s hard to wrap your mind around and “invitation only” club with a membership fee of $250,000 and lots selling for $2 million/acre and homes that are for occasional use and sell for between $5 million and $35 million.

The woman at the center of this sordid bankrupt menagerie, Edra Blixseth, can be summed up by a few observations in the Times article.

• A  30,000 square foot mansion with a private “Prayer Room” (what a Christian!)
• A private 240 acre golf course
• A boyfriend who is a former underwear model
• A Billion dollar bankruptcy
• Only 40 servants (down from 110)

Where is the Guillotine when we really need it!

Map of The Yellowstone Club

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The Wausaukee Club: Republican Communists in the Woods!

Hidden in the idyllic forests of Northern Wisconsin resides a tiny and exclusive club for some of Chicago and Milwaukee’s old money families. The Wausaukee club has a mere 35 houses and only 9 of them are winterized.

There is not gate to the 2400 acre development and several years ago I managed to infiltrate this bastion of privacy and even had a cryptic interview with a very nervous General Manager.  I had become aware of this tiny slice of heaven through my research of the Social Register and to my delight I found that this sylvan club was a mere 47 miles northwest of my family’s cottage on Green Bay just south of Marinette, Wisconsin.

I hope he wasn’t fired for talking to me. The information I was able to gleen from the internet came about because of an advertisement that the club ran for a new General Manager.  The homes are modest by most standards and surround an astoundingly pristine and beautiful private lake. There is a large communal dining hall….. I repeat communal….. and probably Republican Communists at that.

The annual budget for this seasonal endeavor is $1.1 million. The operating budget is shared by the members… Communists!!   As many as 160 of these Red Devils share the bliss of a Wisconsin summer in high season (July-August).

Like the Yellowstone Club, I’m only guessing at the boundaries and I rest comfortable that absolutely no one  will really want to bother these fine people.

Harbor Point, Michigan: When Harbor Springs Just Isn’t Exclusive Enough…

Map of Harbor Point, Michigan

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The following description is from a 1965 article in Time Magazine. No doubt, it is still applicable although I suspect the homes have been passed to heirs and heiress at this point.

“Harbor Point is Michigan’s most exclusive because the millionaire and blue-blooded families who live there guard their privacy well. Located on a point that juts out into Little Traverse Bay near Harbor Springs, Harbor Point does not even allow automobiles to intrude upon its seclusion. Instead they are parked at the entrance to the point, and the residents are delivered to their doors by a horse and buggy that makes a circle of the area every 15 minutes. The buggy also is used when residents visit their neighbors. There are some 70 homes on the point, two-or three-storied with numerous sun porches and beautifully kept lawns leading down to the shore. Among the house owners are Wrigley Offield, scion of the chewing gum clan, Elton MacDonald, creator of Plaid Stamps, and Frederick S. Ford, a director of Libbey-Owens-Ford Glass. The Harbor Point Association carefully screens anyone wishing to build on any of the 103 lots still available in the area. There are two golf courses near by, and there is a club at the entrance to the point with a huge swimming pool and a sprawl of tennis courts. Most residents also keep a boat, which is docked in front of their homes.”

Read more:  Recreation: Splendors at Home, by Time Magazine

Table 1 United States Population Increase 2000 to 2008, by Race

A picture of Asian-American material success begins to emerge when one examines the median household income growth figures (inflation adjusted) and is further illustrated by the number of households that claim an income of over $200,000.

Table 2 clearly shows that Asian-American households used the beginning of the 21st Century to increase their median household income by 33.0% to $69,047, significantly widening their lead over all other racial categories and nearly doubling the median household income of African-Americans ($35,086).

It is important to note that within the broad category of  “Asian-American”, there are significant different rates of median household income. The 2000 Census found that Indian-Americans had the highest median income ($63,669) followed by Filipinos ($60,570). At the bottom end were the Cambodians ($36,155), the Malaysians ($35,767), and the Hmong ($32,076). Each of these low income ethnic groups are relatively small in number compared to the two largest Asian ethnic groups, Chinese and Indians.

As there are no current income statistics by ethnic group in the ACS, it is impossible to know how they have fared over the last 8 years. My guess is that along with the rest of the country, the 2010 Census will show the greatest gains in personal income going to those already at the top of the distribution.

Table 2  Median Household income Increase 2000-2008, by Race

The +$200,000 Club

The story that the rich have gotten a lot richer over the last twenty years is an old story. The physical proof of wealth pooling at the top is easily seen in the vast expanses of  nouveaux riche McMansions on the periphery of almost any self respecting American metro area. The teardown phenomenon in older wealthy neighborhoods is but another symptom of this increase in high-income households.  American material success, following a well worn path in history,  has a strong penchant for displaying  wealth and prosperity through architecture. Americans aren’t what we eat…. we’re what we live in!

The  increase in the number of American households that claimed an income of over $200,000 between 2000 and the ACS of 2006-8 is stunning. Although the total number of households in the United States increased by 8.0%, the number earning over $200,000 skyrocketed by 88.2%. The number of Asian-Americans earning over that amount increased an incredible 181.5%– a growth rate more than twice the national average and more than 3 1/2 times the growth rate in African-American families (a healthy increase of 48.9%, but lagging considerably behind other racial categories).

Table 3: Number of Households Earning Greater than $200,000, by Race

Asian-Americans Flock to America’s Wealthiest Suburbs

As the number of high income Asian households increases dramatically, they have moved easily into America’s most elite suburbs as well as many other places that may not be the richest, but extremely comfortable.

Table Four lists 22 well-to-do American suburbs and illustrates the huge increase in the percentage and number of Asian households. These increases are much larger than the Asian-American population growth in general and corresponds to their growing affluence as a racial group.

The vast majority of the 22 wealthy suburbs listed below have experienced modest population growth. Many are geographically landlocked and their slow but steady growth is usually associated with intensified land-use. However. the growth in the Asian population is overall quite remarkable. As can be seen in the table the only place on the list to see a decrease in the Asian population was found in Potomac, Maryland. Note that the decrease is tiny and well within the statistical variance.

Table 4  High Income Places with Large Asian-American Populations

Cupertino, California: An Asian-American Success Story

Cupertino, California in the heart of Silicon Valley. Apple is headquartered in the city and just a short distance from a major Hewlett-Packard complex.Cupertino has joined Milpitas, California as the second Asian majority affluent suburb in the United States. Cupertino may be an insignificant socio-economic notch below Saratoga to the south or Los Altos Hills to the north, but it is very affluent by any American standard. On Dec 5th, 2009, Zillow.com’s valued the typical Cupertino home at $964,700. The schools are superb and Cupertino has extraordinarily high levels of adult education attainment befitting a high tech mecca.  More adults have graduate or professional degrees (41.0%) than measly Bachelors degrees (34.1%)!

Between 2000 and 2006-8 the percentage of Asian households has increased from 44.4% to 57.1%. Cupertino’s Asian population is dominated by two ethnic groups. Chinese-Americans makeup 47.7% of Cupertino’s Asian population and Indian-Americans makeup an additional 32.2% of the Asian population (2006-8 ACS). With majority status comes political power. I will leave it to the Political Scientists to let us know how local power politics are playing out! Better yet, it would be interesting to hear from some Cupertinos (?) as to racial relations in their fair city. Drop a note on my blog!

Map of Cupertino, California

View Cupertino, California in a larger map

Asian Diversity in the Southeastern Bay

Although not geographically part of Silicon Valley, but close by, are two excellent examples of affluent suburbs with large Asian populations: Milpitas and Fremont

Located to the northeast of San Jose, Milpitas’ population is 60.3% Asian, an increase from 51.8% in the 2000 Census. It is interesting that the population of Milpitas has a very diverse Asian population (Filipinos, 30.6% of all Asians; Chinese, 22.9%; Vietnamese, 20.7%; Indian, 18.4%). Milpitas has one Higley 1000 neighborhood that surrounds the Summitpointe Golf Club on the city’s east side.

Fremont,  just north of Milpitas, is a large city (206,241) that has a high median household income ($94.979, ACS) and a large, diverse Asian population that is dominated by Chinese (36.3% of all Asian groups), and Indians (34.1%)… a close second in population (well within the margin or error). The third largest Asian contingent in Fremont is Filipino. They contribute 12.4% of the Asian-American population.

Fremont has three of the four highest percentage Asian neighborhoods in the entire United States in the  Higley 1000 neighborhoods. They are all found in the Mission San Jose district of the city: Mission Hills-Vineyards North, 74.6 % Asian; Cameron Hills South, 63.9% Asian; and Avalon-Vineyards South, 54.2% Asian. It should be noted that Fremont’s highest income neighborhoods are significantly more Asian than the rest of the city.

In both Fremont and Milpitas, the largest percentage increase among Asian population subcategories was clearly seen in American-Indian households. The population increase was significant at 58.4% in Fremont and 66.9% in Milpitas.

Map of Fremont-Milpitas Higley 1000 Neighborhoods (2000)

View Fremont-Milpitas, California in a larger map

In summary, the 2010 Census will give us more concrete numbers and it is my opinion that we will see the estimates of the American Community Survey confirmed: Asian-Americans are flocking to our wealthiest Suburbs in large numbers driven by high levels of education and income.

TABLE of the TOP 5% MEAN HOUSEHOLD INCOMES PLACES

The Elite 5% in America’s Highest Income Places

1  American Community Survey 2006-8

2 American Community Survey 2005-7

The newest survey of the top 5% has similar methodology problems compared to looking at all households. The first irksome problem for either table is that the Census Bureau does not let any household claim an income of over $2,000.000 for statistical reasons. Statistically speaking there is good reason to limit the amount a household can claim as income. After all, Bill Gates would surely blow out Medina, Washington’s mean household income!  However, $2 million seems like an arbitrarily low amount and it will not change for the 2010 Census.

Secondly, because of the use of sampling, variances are very large and although there are real differences, one shouldn’t get hung up on whether a community is 3rd or 4th on the list.

Another problem in looking at the wealthiest places is the population cut-off of 20,000. This leaves some of the wealthiest places in America that are so familiar to Americans, off the list (e.g. Scarsdale, Millburn Township aka Short Hills, Winnetka, Hillsborough, and Palm Beach).

The one problem with the data in high income suburbs that is cleared up by looking at just the top 5% of households is the Servant Problem (as I call it). Servants that have their own  housekeeping  facilities such as kitchens are considered separate households. Naturally their incomes pull down mean household income statistics for any community with particularly large houses that require live-in staff. Greenwich, Connecticut would be a good example of this kind of place.

Climbers: Even Wealthy Places have Stratification

When one compares the mean income for all households to that of the top 5% there are some statistical surprises. Even places that are generally considered to be “wealthy” by any conventional definition can be highly stratified.

Laguna Beach makes the most jarring leap in the standings from 44th for all households compared to 8th place for mean household income ($1,170,959).  The stratification of this beautiful beach town is obviously the spectacular ocean front  mansions vs. more modest homes and apartments near the center of town.

Beverly Hills climbs from 57nd to 23rd. This is no surprise as the wealth associated with north of Santa Monica Boulevard vs. the tracts south of that major road are from two different strata entirely. The wealthy precincts north of Santa Monica (aka 90210) makes up less than a third of all of Beverly Hills households. The lower 2/3 of the city has a surprisingly low mean household income considering the astronomical real estate prices. Let’s face it, living in Beverly Hills means you’ve made it in America!

Although including Manhattan is a bit like comparing apples and oranges, I couldn’t help but add it to the chart as the borough is well known for it’s extreme social segmentation. The size and number of extremely wealthy neighborhoods are familiar to most (the Upper East Side, Sutton Place, Greenwich Village and Tribeca). The mean household income of Manhattan’s top 5% comes in 42nd on the list at $816,029. Three other highly stratified central cities did not make the top 50 list: San Francisco ($506,233); Atlanta ($506,096); and Washington DC ($487,133).

Southampton to East Hampton: Serious Stratification even in the “off  season”.

Household income is always counted at one’s primary residence so many of the most elite vacation spots have relatively low mean household income due to year round service people statistically overwhelming the relatively few very wealthy  permanent residents. The income data from the Towns of East Hampton and Southhampton capture this dichotomy of wealth. However, those wealthy households that due claim the two towns as their “first homes” for personal reasons ensures the Hamptons’ representation among the 50 wealthiest communities of the top 5%.

It is safe to assume that the lions share of the top 5% of incomes are located in the high income core of the Hamptons displayed below.

The Southampton and East Hampton Core Communities Map


View Southampton-East Hampton in a larger map

Places that are less Segmented and more Homogeneous

Just as there are places that are more stratified, there are some notable places that have a much higher degree of homogeneous income. A couple of the most extraordinary examples of this pattern of income are two Fort Worth suburbs. Both are collections  of  monotonously nouveaux riche subdivisions filled with endless McMansions. They exhibit little demographic or architectural difference. Southlake falls from 8th in rank for all households to  35th for the top 5%. Colleyville falls off the top 50 list from 14th to 55th.

New Jersey’s Montgomery Township falls from 21st to 47th. It is an illustration of  an East Coast homogeneous nouveau riche community.

An example of an older planned community that exhibits less stratification is the gracious Long Island community of Garden City. Although 12th in the nation for all household incomes, it falls to 36th for the top 5% of earners.

Map of Garden City, New York’s Higley 1000 Neighborhoods

View Garden City in a larger map

I have eliminated the minor candidates from the percentages as they had insignificant vote totals.

It is hard to generalize from this small sample of wealthy suburbs as four of the states that I found records of the vote at the city or town level voted heavily for Barack Obama. Of course Alabama voted heavily for John McCain and the following table certainly illustrates the vast difference in how elites vote in a hardcore Liberal state such as Massachusetts, one medium Liberal state (Connecticut), and two barely still Liberal states (Wisconsin and Minnesota); and one very very Conservative state. Alabama, of course.

If anyone out there can help me find some more election results at the local level, please get in touch with me as several of my readers have asked about political voting patterns. I’d particularly be interested in seeing some results from some more Conservative areas such as Texas or Kansas or Oklahoma.

Alabama

I have tallied five wealthy areas of Birmingham, Alabama and the statistics show that the elites of Birmingham were strong McCain supporters. Although the boundaries of the voting areas may not be an exact match with municipal boundaries, the returns show McCain favored by an approximate 4 to 1 margin. In the aftermath of the election, the national media bandied about the fact that  White Alabamians voted Republican 10-1 and although that may be true of some boxes (as Alabamians call their precincts), it is not strictly true in the Birmingham area. The margins in the all White suburbs of Birmingham ranged from 10-1 in the some of the more rural areas of Jefferson County to 2-1 and 3-1 in more affluent suburban boxes.

One of the City of Birmingham’s few affluent neighborhoods, Forest Park voted for Barack Obama by a margin of 59.7% to 40.3%. However, the box in question also contains voters from neighborhoods other than Forest Park and therefore it is not clear how this lovely gentrified neighborhood actually voted. Forest Park residents make up the majority of the votes in this precinct and certainly show a vastly different voting pattern than one finds in the suburbs.

Connecticut

The table below shows the election returns from 3 affluent towns outside of Hartford and 9 wealthy suburbs of New York City in Fairfield County. Only two of Connecticut’s wealthiest towns voted for McCain. New Canaan (53.1% McCain) and Darien (54.6%) gave the Republicans a rare victory. In a change of pace from many recent elections, Greenwich, the epicenter of hedge funds and splashy wealth along Blue Blood estates, voted for Barack Obama (53.8%). Westport, a suburb well know for its arts scene and culture vultures, was an outlier as Obama took a healthy 65.3% of the vote. Only the much more socio-economically diverse and larger suburb of West Hartford gave President Obama a greater margin of victory (70.2%). As West Hartford is an older suburb, it’s voting pattern is consistent with the fact that the inner suburbs, even the most affluent, are trending Democratic.

Massachusetts

The 22 elite suburbs of Boston (plus Longmeadow of Springfield) exhibited a voting pattern that is consistent with a state that has one of the United States’ most Liberal voting records. With the exception of two small exurban towns that went for McCain (Boxford 53.2%; Dover 51.2%), Massachusetts’ wealthy voted heavily for Barack Obama.

The poster child for Liberalism with a capital L, Cambridge, voted for Obama by an almost 9-1 margin. Cambridge is a very large place with a 2007 American Community Survey population of 91,867. It is also neither uniformly wealthy nor Non-Hispanic White. African-Americans make up 12.6% of the population and Asians make up another 14.4%. There is only one very small Block Group in West Cambridge that is wealthy enough to make the Higley 1000, however, I include it for the interest of my readers.

Coming in second place for Democratic dominance is the diverse and densely populated town of Brookline (82.3% for Obama) and the adjacent suburb of Newton (76.4%, Obama). Newton is a very large and wealthy suburb of Boston that is well represented in the Higley 1000. The huge majorities rolled up by President Obama in some of Boston toniest suburbs are amazing. Examples of Barack Obama’s vote getting ability in very White places would be Lexington (73.8%) and Concord (71.8%). Even the much smaller and very exclusive Weston gave Barack Obama 61.3% of its vote.

Minnesota

The wealthy suburbs of Minneapolis and St. Paul have a much more varied voting pattern than the three states I have previously highlighted. Whereas the grand daddy of elite Minneapolis suburbs, Edina voted handily for Obama, the margin in the much newer adjacent suburb of Eden Prairie was much closer with Obama picking up a small 51.5% majority. The small St. Paul suburb of Birchwood is Obama-land as it gave 58.2 of its vote to our new President.

McCain did well in many of the Twin Cities smaller elite suburbs with his best showing in tiny Sunfish Lake (58.2%). McCain also did well in the St. Paul suburb of North Oaks (56.3%) and Minneapolis’ exurban Orono (57.4%). The charming town of Wayzata on Lake Minnetonka was a bit closer as it gave John McCain 52.1% of its vote.

Wisconsin

Without question, the elite of Wisconsin are the most split in their loyalties and the voting patterns are very interesting. The older Milwaukee suburbs along Lake Michigan: Bayside, Whitefish Bay, and Fox Point went decidedly for Obama whereas Mequon, a nouveaux riche exurb voted heavily for John McCain. River Hills, Milwaukee’s miniature version of Lake Forest or Greenwich went for McCain by a 53.5% to 46.5% margin. The fact that the three Milwaukee County lakefront suburbs went for Obama is most likely linked to heavily Democratic Jewish voting patterns although that possibility is mere speculation on my part.

The affluent suburbs west of Milwaukee are heavily Republican. Two tiny villages that are primarily collections of estates around scenic lakes, Chenequa and Oconomowoc Lake voted like Alabama as they gave 81.2% and 76.3% of their vote to John McCain. The fairly large suburb of Brookfield, with its endless nouveaux riche subdivisions, went strongly for McCain as he trounced Barack Obama 65.1% to 34.9%. The much more upscale and tasteful adjacent suburb of Elm Grove showed a similar result (64.5% McCain).

I have also included Wauwatosa, even though it is considerably lower on the socio-economic scale than the previously mentioned suburbs. It is my home town, so I know it well. It is uniformly lower and upper middle class (with an emphasis on lower middle). It voted consistently 2-1 Republican when I was growing up and times are a-changing.  Although Wauwatosa has one small neighborhood in the Higley 1000, the Washington Highlands, the vast majority of this fairly large city would not be considered elite by most people’s standards. The one thing that can’t be argued however is that it has certainly evolved into a much more liberal place than I remember. I was amazed to see Obama took my hometown with 53.1% of the vote. This is consistent with the previously mentioned tendency for the Liberal drift of inner suburbs found in other parts of the country.

Madison and Dane County have a well deserved reputation for being the most liberal place in Wisconsin and the two tiny elite suburbs that bracket the central city are illustrative of what drives that attitude. Shorewood Hills is adjacent to the University of Wisconsin’s campus and home to many professors. Shorewood Hills gave 86.8% of it’s votes to President Obama….  giving Cambridge, Massachusetts a run for it’s money.

Maple Bluff, located along the shores of Lake Mendota and home to the Governors mansion, which I remember as a Republican kind of place… went Democratic in this election giving Obama a solid 61.2% of the vote.

Here is the table from which the above narrative was derived.

Obama vs. McCain: 65 Suburban Vote Totals

Asian-Americans are still over-represented in the Elite 100 with 4.3% of the households versus 2.7% of the total households in the United States. Although African-Americans makeup only 1.0 % of the Higley 1000 households, they contribute significantly fewer households (.7%) to the Elite 100. As I have questioned repeatedly on my site, where are the wealthy Black households? They made up 11.7% of all American households in the 2000 Census and 4.4% of the households making over $200,000, yet there representation in the best neighborhoods is negligible.

The Elite 100 is surprisingly diverse in terms of the number of metro areas represented on the list. No less than 27 Metro areas have their “best” neighborhoods on the list, although many of them (13) only have one place. As in the list of 1000 neighborhoods, the New York City metro area dominates the Elite 100 with 30 neighborhoods or small villages. There are 17 in the state of New York, 7 in Connecticut, and 6 in New Jersey for a total of 30% of the Elite 100. The Los Angeles metro area is a distant second with 11 neighborhoods on the list, followed by Chicago with nine.

When defining the type of neighborhoods that make up the Elite 100, it is best to think of a continuum as some neighborhoods are difficult to assess on a national scale. As an example what is “traditional” or “nouveau riche” in Florida? With some equivocation I have adjudged that 65 of the 100 as “traditional” and 30 as “nouveau riche“. The remaining five are hard to catagorize oceanfront Florida neighborhoods (Jupiter Island, Johns Island, the Everglades Club of Palm Beach, Lost Tree Village-Seminole Landing, and Ponte Vedra Beach).

There are 15 neighborhoods found in the corporate limits of central cities, however, only Midtown Manhattan could truly be considered urban.

The richest neighborhood in the United States is the lush Holmby Hills neighborhood just west of the Los Angeles Country Club in the so-called Platinum Triangle (along with Beverly Hills and Bel Air). This small neighborhoods has some of the most gargantuan houses in the United States including Candy Spelling’s 60,000 square foot mansion.

The second richest neighborhood in the United States is located in Denver’s Cherry Hills Village. I have named this collection of upscale sub-divisions Buell Mansion-Cherry Hills Park after two of this Block Group’s most luxurious developments. Cherry Hills Village is typical of the Western United States in that it is hard to categorize. It is a combination of old wealth and the uber-mansions of the nouveau riche.

The second and third richest neighborhoods in the Higley 1000, North Greenwich-Round Hill, and the St. Louis Country Club area located in Ladue, are older and very traditional. They exhibit the mature landscaping on carefully screened acreage typical of this type of neighborhood. Each of these neighborhoods have exceptionally large new homes that are interspersed among the equally large older homes.

Good examples of nouveaux riche neighborhoods are the Potomac Manor-Potomac Falls Estates outside of DC or the claustrophobic Old Shepard Place in Plano, Texas (possibly the most unpleasant wealthy sub-division in the United States). Twelve of the top 100 are gated communities. Almost all gated communities are by definition nouveaux riche, although there are exceptions such as The Highlands outside of Seattle and, Belle Terre, a waterfront gated traditional neighborhood in Greenwich, Connecticut. An excellent example of a gated nouveaux riche neighborhood is Coco Plum-Gables Estates. The Block Group that makes up this “neighborhood” is actually a series of gated communities along Biscayne Bay that also include Old Cutler Bay, Journey’s End, and Hammock Oaks. I don’t really know if “gated” is the term to use for Fisher Island, but I guess it fits if you consider that the former Vanderbilt estate is private and not open to the public (you need a boat for access).

As I have made clear in my methodology section, mean income as collected by the Census Bureau has many flaws (realistically a household can’t claim more the $2 million in income), however, I doubt that any observer would question the end result of my research as the communities that represent their metro area are widely acclaimed as the pinnacle of residential success. River Oaks in Houston, Hillsborough Heights in San Francisco, and Tuxedo Park (a section of Buckhead in Atlanta) are good examples of the “best” places to live in there respective metro areas.

One more disclaimer to consider is that racial minorities may be over represented in the Elite 100 as servant’s quarters that have household facilites are considered a separate household. The houses in the Elite 100 are the largest in the United States and many have such quarters.

Here’s is the entire Elite 100 list and their racial make-up. If you are interested in a particular Metro area click on “Neighborhood Summary by Metro Area” on the right side of the this page.

Although the American Community Survey did not collect racial data, the 2000 Census showed Darien as being 95.6% non-Hispanic White. Darien has three neighborhoods on the Higley 1000: Tokeneke, Long Neck Point-Noroton Neck, and Darien North.

Map of Darien, Connecticut

View Larger Map of Darien CT

The New York City metro area dominate the list with 15 places among the 50 wealthiest. It is followed by San Francisco with 7, and 5 in the Los Angeles area. Chicago, Washington DC, and Boston each have 4 towns on the list. Beverly Hills did not make the list coming in at #52 with a mean household income of $148,758.

The list I have compiled below is for Mean Household Income to capture extremes of wealth. Be sure to read the caveats at the bottom of the list.

I have purposely not included racial statistics as these large entities may have large internal neighborhood disparities making the racial statistics problematic. There is only one place that does not have a  neighborhood represented in the Higley 1000: Montgomery Township, a fast-growing exurban township in southern Somerset County, New Jersey.

Table1:  The 50 Highest Income Places in the United States with a Population over 20,000

Wealthiest Places With Population Over 20,000

1.  The numbers are not adjusted from for inflation since the 2000 Census. The sampling process used by the Census Bureau (to grossly simplify) is within 8-10% of the actual numbers. For a detailed discussion of the sampling process and margins of errors, see the American Community Survey.

2.  The numbers are based on a rolling average over the years 2005-2007.

3.  Remember that the Census Bureau makes it impossible for households to claim much more than approximately $2 million dollars in income in any given year. This statistical policy does prevent the Bill Gates’ and Warren Buffets of this world from distorting income figures, but, it does significantly downplay the highest incomes of the richest places found in the United States

4.  The Towns of New York can be confusing  geographic entities as they may include subordinate villages in their totals. As an example, the Town of Mamaroneck, among the most confusing jurisdictions in the country, is composed of all of the Village of Larchmont, half of the Village of Mamaroneck (the other half is in the Town of Rye) and a geographic remainder that is sometimes referred to as Larchmont North.

Map of West Los Angeles Core Area (West Hollywood Hills to Castellammare)

View Larger Map of Higley 1000 Neighborhoods in West Los Angeles

Familiar to many Americans entranced by celebrity, West Los Angeles is centered on the so-called “Platinum Triangle” (Beverly Hills, Bel Air, and Holmby Hills). The small neighborhood of Holmby Hills was ranked number one in the nation and may have the world’s largest collection of nouveau riche uber-mansions this side of Saudi Arabia. Two of its more infamous monuments to excess are the Playboy mansion and the 60,000 square foot Spelling mansion that reportedly recently sold for $130 million. The West Los Angeles core dominates the metro area’s geography of wealth with 42.1% of all Higley 1000 households in greater Los Angeles and 53.3% of all households if you include the five adjacent neighborhoods in the San Fernando Valley.

Orange County accounts for an additional 22.2% of the Higley 1000 neighborhood households found in the metro area. The wealth of Orange County is particularly fragmented although one could say it is centered on Newport Beach as this town has almost 40% of the Higley 1000 households in the county. The larger “satellites” of Newport are Laguna Beach, Coto de Caza, the Tustin Foothills, and Laguna Hills.

There are no Higley 1000 neighborhoods found in the “Inland Empire” counties of Riverside and San Bernardino and only two neighborhoods found in Ventura County (Bell Canyon & North Ranch). One may be surprised that the Palm Springs area has no representation in the Higley 1000, however the statistical answer lies in the large number of retirees and second homes found in the area. This phenomenon is not unusual as the Hamptons are also absent from the Higley 1000.

Racial Patterns in Los Angeles’ Wealthiest Neighborhoods

As is true across the country, the wealthiest neighborhoods of Los Angeles are not representative of the racial make up of the metro area. It is particularly striking that area’s huge Latino population is so poorly represented in the 80 Higley 1000  Los Angeles neighborhoods. In 2000 Latinos made up 28.6% of the households in the metro area, but a mere 2.7% of the households in the Los Angeles Higley 1000 neighborhoods. Once one takes into to account live-in servants that have separately tallied households, this figure is undoubtedly even less than this small percentage.

Summary Table of Los Angeles Racial Statistics: Table 1

Summary Table of Los Angeles Racial Statistics

In 2000, Asian-Americans made up 9.7% of Los Angeles’ households and 6.6% of the households in the Higley 1000 neighborhoods. The distribution of Asians in the Higley 1000 neighborhoods varies immensely: from a high of 17.2% of households in the Pasadena-San Marino area to a mere 0.8 % in Laguna Beach.

Repeating a pattern seen elsewhere in the country, African-Americans are poorly represented in the Higley 1000 neighborhoods of Los Angeles (0.9%). The Los Angeles area has a noticeably smaller number of Black households than found in other large areas. African-Americans made up only 8% of all households found in the metro area in 2000.

Clusters of Higley 1000 Neighborhoods by Race: Table 2

Clusters of Higley 1000 Neighborhoods by Race

Note that the core area of West Los Angeles has a racial distribution that is almost identical to the pattern found in all Higley 1000 neighborhoods. It is quite amazing that in spite of the high concentrations of Asian and Hispanic households in the LA metro area, there are so few households of those minority groups found in the what is the heart of Los Angeles’ geography of wealth.

Chicago has always been famous for its skyline and no small plans are in the offing. Trump’s new 1,362 foot tower is nearing completion on the Chicago River and ground was recently broken on the Chicago Spire, a 2,000 foot tall condominium tower. With 1,200 units to sell in a difficult market, it will be interesting to see if Santiago Calatrava’s tour de force will rise from Lake Shore Drive. For a wonderful tour of this spectacular tower click here: The Chicago Spire. If completed, the Spire will be the second tallest building in the world after the Burj Dubai (2,625 feet) currently under construction in Abu Dhabi.

Before I sound too much like Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, Chicago does have its fair quotient of the typical ills affecting large American cities: endemic poverty, racial strife, a nasty problem with police corruption, and the usual dreadful public school system. MCIC, a Chicago research and consulting organization terms 22 of the 77 recognized city neighborhoods as either “Emerging Low Income” or in the worst category “Desertification”.. swathes of despair amidst a generally improving city.

On a brighter note, the city, somewhat imperfectly, tackles its problems head on under the able and popular lead of Mayor Daley, a man that may have some flaws, but all would agree has the best interests of his beloved city at heart. Yes, I am a totally biased observer of Chicago. I have seen the city bloom before my very eyes over the last 36 years from dreary and tired to exciting and new.

City vs. Suburb

As typical of American cities in the Northeast and Midwest, the city of Chicago has dramatically lost population from the heights of its industrial heyday. Locked into a mere 224 square miles, the population has dropped from 3,620,962 in 1950 to 2,783,726 in 1990. After a rally in the 90s to 2,896,016, it is again on the decline as the Census has estimated the city’s population at 2,833,321 in 2006.

In that same period of time the population of the suburbs, with no limits to there physical growth, have increased from 1,874,402 (1950) to 6,691,996 (2006). Chicagoland’s Consolidated Metropolitan Statistical Area now stretches from Wisconsin’s Kenosha County on the North to Kankakee County in the South and well into Indiana to the Southeast.

There has been a strikingly divergence in the suburbanization among racial groups. The 2000 Census showed that Non-Hispanic Whites have suburbanized the most with 79.7% of households found beyond the city limits, whereas 63.5% of Asians, 47.5% Of Hispanics, and 37.2% of African-Americans are suburbanites.

When one looks at the city/suburb contrasts of the wealthiest households (over $200,000 mean household income), the numbers shed some light on the paucity of wealthy Blacks and Hispanics found in the suburbs. No less than 83.4% of the wealthiest category of Asian households have moved out of the city. This percentage is even greater than 79.8% the $200,000+ Non-Hispanic Whites that have left the city. Wealthy Latino (55.4%) and Black households (47.8%) are much less likely to have moved out of the city.

Racial Patterns in the Higley 1000 Neighborhoods of Chicago

There are 70 Chicago neighborhoods in the Higley 1000. Sixty-nine of these are in the suburbs as only one Block Group is found in the city in Lincoln Park. Even the core of the Gold Coast, Chicago’s most exclusive neighborhood, did not have a high enough mean household income to be included in the list. This is another case where the homogeneity of the suburbs triumphs the diversity of city life, even in the most gilded precints.

There were 45,587 households found in these most elite of suburban neighborhoods of Chicago. The racial breakdown: 93.3% Non-Hispanic White, 4.0% Asian, 1.1% Hispanic, and 0.9% African-American. Asian-Americans are heavily clustered in Oak Brook, a nouveau riche suburb in the Western suburbs of Du Page County. Oak Brook is famous for two things in Chicago: the headquarters of McDonalds and polo.

There are three main clusters of suburban wealth in the Chicago area: the North Shore, the Barrington Area, and the West Suburban area. There are separate postings on the Barrington Area and the West Suburban area of Chicago centered on Hinsdale and Oak Brook.

Two neighborhoods are found in the South Suburban area: Flossmoor Country Club and a neighborhood just South of the Prestwick Country Club in Frankfort. I have a word on the South Suburban area at the end of the West Suburban article.

The North Shore

View a Larger Map of Higley 1000 neighborhoods in North Shore Chicago

As every Chicagoan knows, the North Shore of Chicago is where the true movers and shakers of suburban of power and influence reside. Sheridan Road is the gateway to a sumptuous swathe of suburbia that bursts out Chicago’s East Rodger Park neighborhood and sweeps around lakeside Calvary Cemetery into Evanston. After a couple of blocks of preliminary apartments in the Oakton neighborhood of Southern Evanston, Sheridan Road bursts into Evanston’s gorgeous 19th Century mansions that are sprinkled with just about every imaginable style of residential architecture from Victorian Gothic to Modernist. Sheridan Road proceeds 27 miles north through the suburban communities that are the epitome old Social Register families and the nouveau riche alike: Kenilworth, Winnetka, Glencoe, and Lake Forest to name a few. The parade of wealth ends abruptly just past the Shoreline Country Club in Lake Bluff in impoverished North Chicago, a largely African-American community that is home to the Great Lakes Naval Station.

The heavily wooded ravines and dramatic bluffs overlooking Lake Michigan are dotted with the mansions of Chicago’s elite. As I chronicled in my book, Power, Privilege, and Place: The Geography of the American Upper Class, Lake Forest near the northern end of Sheridan Road has the largest number of Social Register families, distantly followed by Winnetka. The Onwentsia Club in the center of Lake Forest is at the heart of North Shore society.

View Larger Map of Indian Hill Club neighborhood

The wealthiest neighborhood in Chicago is the Indian Hill Club-Woodley Road neighborhood that lies partly in Southern Winnetka and a small patch of unincorporated New Trier Township. With a mean household income of $459,070, this sylvan patch of suburban bliss is ranked 5th in the Higley 1000. Although the Woodley Road enclave is marked “Private, Residents only”, this researcher was able to make a pass through unmolested by the authorities.

Of Chicago’s 70 neighborhoods found in the Higley 1000, 39 are found on the North Shore. The racial makeup is overwhelmingly Non-Hispanic White (95.3%) and there are few neighborhoods with significant Asian populations except a couple of areas in western Northbrook near the Tri-State Tollway. Northbrook is a second tier suburb in that is has no lakefront and is generally less affluent. The neighborhoods of Stonebrook-Woodmere (12.2% Asian) is the only place on the North Shore that showed any racial diversity in the 2000 Census.

The White population of the North Shore is not technically WASP in the sense that people of English ancestry dominate. WASPs make up only 22.1% of Kenilworth’s population and as low as 10.7% of the population in heavily Jewish Glencoe. The two largest ethnic groups found on the North Shore are Irish and German. One of the reasons why one can see so many blondes driving BMWs may have something to do with the rather large numbers of people of Scandinavian and Dutch ancestry that live in the area (around 10%).

In Conclusion

Chicago’s wealthiest suburban neighborhoods are heavily clustered on the North Shore where 39 of Chicago’s 70 Higley 1000 neighborhoods are located. The expansion of this elite slice of Chicagoland is blocked to the north by poor North Chicago and blue-collar Waukegan and has expanded to the West towards the old farming town of Barrington in southern Lake County. As is typical of the largest of American cities, there is more than one sector of high income growth and Chicago is no different. To the West there is a substantial cluster of wealthy neighborhoods centered on old money Hinsdale and nouveau riche Oak Brook. The southern suburbs have faced a decline in socio-economic status over the last 35 years as they have become increasingly African-American. It is important to remember that these neighborhoods are still beautiful, they just have not kept up with the Jones!

Birmingham has indeed come a long way in its relatively brief history. Born in the aftermath of the Civil War (1871), the city quickly burgeoned into the iron and steel industry’s “Pittsburgh of the South” by the early 20th Century. The city’s explosive growth in its first forty years earned it the nickname of the “Magic City”. Although it soon became the state’s largest city, Birmingham has always been considered a brash industrial upstart by the more genteel antebellum cities of Mobile and Montgomery.

Birmingham’s reliance on the iron and steel industry would be a curse and a blessing as dependence on one industry would lead to a boom and bust cycle throughout most of the 20th Century. During the last 20 years the steel industry has waned to secondary importance as Birmingham has pegged its future to banking and medicine.

The banking industry of Birmingham has recently succumbed to the on-going national trend in bank consolidation and three of it’s four largest banks have changed form. Southtrust was swallowed by Wachovia while Regions bought their slightly smaller rival AmSouth. The smallest of the four largest banks, Compass, retains it’s name but is now owned by a Spanish bank. Voila! There is now only one large bank headquartered in Birmingham: Regions Bank.

The University of Alabama-Birmingham’s large medical center is nationally recognized as a leader in many specialties and has been critical to the stabilization of the central city. The university itself was essentially grafted onto the medical center and has blossomed into a respectable urban university in spite of weak state support. The city also has two large Baptist hospitals and St. Vincent’s, a very large sort of Catholic hospital, and a wide array of additional hospitals scattered throughout the metro area.

The city is located in Jones Valley in the foothills of the Appalachians, and the bulk of the city limits lies in the flat lands of the valley. Upscale neighborhoods developed along the flanks of Red Mountain in the early part of the twentieth century as the city’s aristocracy escaped the industrial pollution and captured today’s panoramic views. Don’t bother looking for expensive housing north, east or west of the city; the upscale development of the metro region is found along U.S. Highway 280 to the Southeast of the city. The upscale neighborhoods in this area are very beautiful due to the rugged, heavily wooded topography. Homes are built along the sides, in the valleys and on the crests of Red, Shades, and Oak Mountains. Of course, Birmingham has no real “mountains,” but none-the-less, these three rather steep, heavily wooded Appalachian ridges make for very attractive suburbs and neighborhoods. Suburban sprawl has brought development to the flanks of a fourth Appalachian ridge, Double Oak Mountain.

Higley 1000 Neighborhoods in the Greater Birmingham Metro Area

View Larger Map

Birmingham will forever be tainted by its fierce and violent resistance to racial integration. Although the city’s race relations have progressed along the lines of the rest of the nation, a social and cultural gulf between whites and blacks persists. White flight from the central city (now 73.5% black) continued at a torrid pace during the 1990s with the white population dropping from 91,000 to 58,000. This trend continues into the new Century as the American Community Survey estimates the White population at 48,000 in 2006. The Birmingham city schools are over 99% black, heralding ever more residential segregation. Social and religious life in Birmingham is almost completely segregated. Mountain Brook, easily Birmingham’s most prestigious suburb, is 98.1% Non-Hispanic White. Even Forest Park, a city neighborhood that is much more liberal than the suburbs in outlook and voting, is 96.2% Non-Hispanic white. Unfortunately, there is a latent and sometimes outright hostility between Black Birmingham and the White suburbs.

The Arrival of Hurricane Larry (Langford)

In November of 2007 Birmingham began a new era with the election of Larry Langford as Mayor. Langford is a controversial character in local politics. Vainglorious and egotistical, he started his political career as the mayor of Fairfield, a struggling, small poor Black suburb adjacent to Birmingham that is famous as the location of the formerly huge US Steel works. Langford spent profusely in Fairfield leaving the small poor city struggling financially to pay off a new city hall and civic center. A man of unbounded ambition, he soon jumped to the Jefferson County Commission where he made waves and headlines by creating what may have been one of the most unusual fiascos in the annals of county governance by railroading through an amusement park with public money. He named his brainstorm Visionland and it was a disaster from the get-go. After $90 million of taxpayers money was poured into this albatross that was in a dreadful location, this money hemorrhaging loser was sold to a private developer for $5 million and rechristened Alabama Adventure. Commissioner Langford also raised the sales tax in Jefferson County to an astronomical 10% to finance a vast rebuilding of the Jefferson County school buildings. As head of the county commission he reigned over the rebuilding of the county’s sewer system that has saddled the county with $3.2 billion dollars in debt after he pursued a policy of debt swaps and was hoodwinked by the city slicker bankers in New York City. Look for the largest municipal bankruptcy in the history of the United States when Jefferson County goes under. It is not a matter of whether it will happen…. it is just when. As of August 2009, the Jefferson County Commission has managed to stave off bankruptcy for now, but it is only a matter of time.

Langford was indicted in 2009 for taking $238,000 in bribes for steering the Jefferson County bond business to a brokerage firm run by the highly connected Blount family in Montgomery. The trial begins on August 31st, 2009 and since the bagman between Langford and Blount  just turned states evidence, things don’t look good for Mayor Langford. Every single county commissioner that was in office during the sewer fiasco is either in jail or under indictment.

Langford brief tenure has been a whirlwind of activity. He immediately raised taxes and “found” money to start an incredible array of initiatives that are too numerous to catalogue here. Langford plays fast and loose with the taxpayers money and may still yet be brought low by his borderline or real corruption. The latest fiasco, announced on December 17th, 2008 is for a domed stadium downtown… a sort Visionland Stadium that will push the envelope with a half a billion dollars of additional debt. No professional teams would consider relocating to Birmingham as the market is too small. Looks like Birmingham will have a gold plated stadium that will be used for gun shows and tractor pulls. Langford is going for a trifecta: he’s left Fairfield struggling with solvency, Jefferson County on the verge of bankruptcy and now it’s the city of Birmingham’s turn to collapse in financial ruin.

Langford follows two terms of the well-meaning, if inert leadership of Mayor Kincaid. Langford is a man that makes no little plans and has only a vague acquaintance with the concept of follow through, so it will be an interesting high-wire act to watch. His leadership will either reinvigorate the city or end in a colossal train wreck of huge financial proportions. My money is on the train wreck. One of the most laughable proposals from La La Larry is to apply for the 2020 Olympics to be held in Birmingham…. or how about and Equestrian Center and indoor Golf Range in the heart of one of Birmingham’s most dreadful neighborhoods… Seriously. It makes you wonder if the Mayor is dealing with reality.

One notable and timely Langford intervention has been in the local “mass transit system”. I use quotation marks in that what passes for mass transit in Birmingham is a joke. The local bus system is an embarrassment and Langford has found money for 100 new buses and 8 antique trolley cars that Prague, Czech Republic is trying to unload on the rubes of Alabama. Fortunately, the city council decided the street cars might have to wait and that harebrained scheme seems to have been put to rest. The 100 buses never materialized (surprise) as the money that was given to the mass transit district had to be used to make up a whopping deficit and makeup for lost federal moneys.

Whether it is a bus system that actually works, or some other combination mass transit system, a source of dedicated revenue is necessary beyond sales tax increases. Sales taxes, in all of there regressive glory, are the only venue open to raising in Alabama without going through the completely corrupt Alabama state legislature. At 10% through much of the metro area, they have been raised to the breaking point.

Taxes are the third rail of Alabama politics. No matter how horrible the schools are, no matter how inhumane the prisons, no matter how many federal court orders castigate the wretched public services of Alabama, Republicans and “Democrats” will not raise taxes in any meaningful way. One must remember that the difference between Republicans and Democrats in Alabama is negligible and laughable: they are both hard core right-wing conservative. There is nary a Liberal or Progressive thought to be heard in what is possibly the most reactionary state in the country (okay, there’s Oklahoma). The voters have made themselves loud and clear on the issue of taxes and any politician that has the courage and audacity to speak the truth is in peril. (Alabama’s current Governor, Bob Riley (R) lived to prove that it is possible to have a political life after proposing a tax increase, but he has a rare amount of courage in my humble estimation.)

Hence, it is difficult to make progress in any meaningful way. Progress on one front means another is neglected. And yet there is progress in an unplanned plodding kind of way.

Whether the domed stadium ever gets built, or the Olympics will choose Birmingham over Chicago,  this is a metro area that can’t even get the lights burning on the freeway system! Mayors have made promises about fixing our darkened byways ever since I have lived here and nothing ever happens. Whole sections of the freeway have no lights as all levels of government show that they are totally incompetent in solving this most complex of urban problems facing the 21st Century American city: changing light bulbs.

The state is mismanaged and under taxed and its antiquated 1910 Constitution gives local authorities little discretion in solving their financial problems. This inability to solve local problems is no more evident than in the U.S. Highway 280 corridor. The highway is the proverbial “golden goose” of Birmingham’s economic development, and it is literally being strangled to death by traffic. The 280 corridor has witnessed a boom in commercial, retail, and residential construction that has overwhelmed the six-lane commercial strip with grinding traffic. This strip of highway has become an unplanned overbuilt jumble and is as ugly as it is dysfunctional…. and still the developers build more…. while the politicians wring their hands and commission another study. Urban planners commit suicide after looking at 280. .

The highway runs through seven competing jurisdictions, and their cutthroat competition for sales tax revenue and unwillingness to control growth have made this an area to avoid for sane motorists. There’s nothing like crawling along behind giant SUVs (drill, baby drill) contemplating the exhilaration and freedom of the open road. The willing residents who live along 280 have no alternative routes to get to the CBD, and if the tolled, double-decked section is ever built, this future “improvement” will promise staggering traffic disruption as it is built. Oh well, as one local Realtor told me in downplaying the dreadful traffic on 280, “It’s no worse than Atlanta”.

I’ll let that speak for itself!

Not that any real improvement for 280 is actually in the planning stage…. The latest proposal is to double deck the highway from the end of the current commercial development into the central city. This plan has run into opposition from the wealthy suburb of Mountain Brook as it would probably be ugly and especially problematic for 30 or 40 large/mansion homeowners as well as other more modest homeowners who were allowed to build to closely to such a major arterial (see lack of planning). Traffic planners, in their infinite wisdom are now going to end the double-decking before it reaches the borders of Mountain Brook. If built as proposed, the double decking of 280 would attract more traffic, more pollution, and more noise…. all lifted 30 feet higher into the sky. It is a difficult problem that will have to be dealt with at some point. It does not appear that point has been reached as of this writing.

The city of Birmingham survived the loss of most of its white middle class by the shrewd stewardship and long-running tenure of the city’s first black mayor, Richard Arrington. Arrington made peace with the white business establishment and embarked on an aggressive annexation campaign that long-lassoed some of the most desirable commercial properties along the booming Highway 280 corridor. These include the wildly successful Summit, a lifestyle shopping center (essentially an upscale, heavily landscaped strip mall), a Target SuperCenter, and two struggling yet potentially successful older shopping centers, The recently remodeled Colonnade and Brook Highland, a somewhat forlorn shopping center in a perfect location.

These smart annexations were coupled with an aggressive defense of the central business district. There are currently more than 80,000 people working in the extended downtown… more than ever before in the 130-year history of the city. Unfortunately, this healthy employment base has not translated into a vibrant downtown: there is no significant retailing downtown, the department stores are long gone, and the streetscape is dominated by commercial property. The downtown is devoid of pedestrian traffic after dark.

Operation New Birmingham, a joint local operation has been very successful in rescuing literally hundreds of vacant downtown buildings and finding new uses for them. Birmingham has managed to avoid the curse of Charlotte (whole scale demolition the old CBD). As law firms and architectural design firms have moved into the small and medium sized buildings, work is now in progress on some of the largest abandoned buildings. A wonderful old 1920s skyscraper, the City Federal Savings & Loan is going condo. Similarly, there if hope that the long abandoned Thomas Jefferson Hotel will burst forth in all of its terra cotta beauty reincarnated as the Leer Tower, another condominium development. Leer Tower update: canceled due to recession.

There are few middle class residents in the city center, however, several hundred residential lofts have been constructed in the last few years and city officials are hopeful that these urban pioneers will be the vanguard of revitalization. The recent demolition of the huge, crime-infested Metropolitan Gardens public housing project and its replacement with a mixed-income, federally subsidized Hope VI housing development (Park Place) may augur well for Birmingham’s central business district. Nothing helps a downtown more than removing 900 crime and drug infested public housing units and replacing it with 580 units that are composed of 1/3 carefully vetted poor people and 2/3 market rate (that means lower middle class) apartments!

The Wealthy Neighborhoods of Birmingham in the Higley 1000

There are nine Higley 1000 neighborhoods in Birmingham: Two in the city, three in Birmingham’s premier upscale suburb of Mountain Brook, and four standard issue gated suburban fortresses.

Forest Park and Redmont Park: Birmingham’s Two Elegant City Neighborhoods

View Larger Map of Forest Park
View Larger Map of Redmont Park

Forest Park and Redmont Park are urban neighborhoods on the city’s commonly called the “Southside”. They were both developed in the early 20th Century (1914 and 1925 respectively) and have flourished in the last twenty years. Forest Park suffered through the 1960s and 1970s only to return to its former glory through gentrification in the 1980s and 1990s. Redmont Park has some of Birmingham’s grandest mansions peering down on the city from Red Mountain, a steep 350 foot tall ridge that overlooks the city below. Both Redmont Park and Forest Park are very small with a few hundred homes each. They are also noteworthy in that in spite of the fact that the central city is 75% Black, they are even Whiter than the suburbs! Along with the contiguous gentrified neighborhood of Highland Park, these three neighborhoods are the only upscale places left in the central city.

Mountain Brook: The Tiny Kingdom

Mountain Brook is a large suburb with about 22,000 pure White residents. Local wags refer to it as “The Tiny Kingdom” due to its insular culture and social dominance.

I have carved out three “neighborhoods” out of the wealthiest sections of the city. Two of these neighborhoods are centered and named after the two towering institutions of social prominence in Birmingham, the Mountain Brook Club and The Country Club of Birmingham. The third neighborhood in Mountain Brook I have dubbed Mountain Brook Estates-Canterbury. Mountain Brook Estates was really the start of this gilded suburb in the unfortuitous year of 1929. For statistical purposes I have joined it with the adjacent neighborhood of Canterbury.

Mountain Brook’s Higley 1000 Neighborhoods

Mountain Brook Estates-Canterbury

View Larger Map of Mountain Brook Estates - Canterbury

The Country Club of Birmingham

View Larger Map of The Country Club of Birmingham
The Mountain Brook Club-Shook Hill
View Larger Map

Mountain Brook, without question, is the place where Birmingham’s upper class lives along with a good portion of the metro area’s upper-middle class. Few wealthy suburbs in the United States command such a disproportinate majority of a metro areas wealthy and influential families. Mountain Brook has more than 80% of Birmingham’s Social Register families and anyone with a shred of social aspiration must live within its golden boundaries. It is a world apart from the crime infested streets of Birmingham and its genteel forested streets and clubs are truly a kingdom unto themselves.The Mountain Brook public school system is rated the highest in the state, and the suburb unquestionably has the largest number of Birmingham’s movers and shakers. It is home to the aforementioned blue-blooded Mountain Brook Club and the The Country Club of Birmingham as well as the social matrix of clubs and social alliances associated with the wealthy. The social system is difficult to break into in Mountain Brook unless one has a sterling pedigree. If you’re an internet entrepreneur from Boston… forget it… move to Greystone or Liberty Park. Nouveau riche households abound, but don’t hold your breath for an invitation to join the Mountain Brook Club!

As mentioned previously, Mountain Brook is incredibly white. Not one of the 62 African-Americans that lived in Mountain Brook in the 2000 Census was a householder. My guess is that they would mostly be live-in servants. There are plenty of well-to-do African-American families that could afford to live in Mountain Brook, however, they choose not to. This is a mystery I have not been able to figure out at this time. Anyone with some ideas, please leave a note below.

Greystone and Liberty Park

Greystone and Liberty Park are similar in that they are relatively new, gated master-planned communities centered on golf courses. They are both unusually large in scope and have developed neighborhoods with distinctly different price points. Of the two, Greystone has a wider range of single family houses ($200,000 to $3,000,000). Liberty Park is uniformly more expensive although it has a high end rental complex that is carefully segregated from the expensive single family homes. Each of these developments will have close to 3,000 housing units when complete, and a majority of those homes will be worth more than $500,000.

Greystone

View Larger Map of Greystone
Greystone is part of the suburb of Hoover, a large (70,000) and aggressively pro-growth suburb with the state’s third best school system. Located at the southern end of the 280 corridor, Greystone has been extremely successful in spite of worsening transportation problems associated with 280. I drew the boundaries for Greystone to include only the three high income gated sub-neighborhoods for the Higley 1000: two country club themed neighborhoods and a third (Greystone Ridge) with multi-million dollar view estates. There are hundreds of many more downscale houses available in Greystone…. houses as low as $200,000! Would that buy a pool house in Greenwich?

Liberty Park

View Larger Map of Liberty Park

The second gated community in the Higley 1000 is called Liberty Park. If you can get past the hokey replica of the Statue of Liberty, this master planned community is located on a lovely patch of rolling wooded land that is ideal for beautiful homes. Liberty Park is part of Vestavia Hills, Birmingham’s second wealthiest suburb (after Mountain Brook) and its second highest rated school system. Vestavia Hills is a large (30,000) overwhelmingly white upper-middle class suburb with one exception, the recently annexed lower-middle class community of Cahaba Heights. The architecture of Cahaba Heights is unremitting expanses of dreadful post-war ranches. Cahaba Heights has a perfectly central location in the metro area and the physical environment is beautiful…. can you say TEARDOWN!?

The addition of Cahaba Heights to the corporate limits of Vestavia gave the city a geographic link to Liberty Park formerly a non-contiguous isolated piece of development. But that’s another story…..

Highland Lakes

View Larger Map of Highland Lakes

Highland Lakes, is a very large gated community located out the 280 corridor in the rolling Appalachian foothills south of the city. Highland Lakes is a planned development where every house essentially looks the same. The “lakes” are dammed (damned?)narrow valleys in the Appalachian foothills. As a native of Wisconsin, I can say with full-throated condescension, these puddles are only “lakes” in a developer’s dream! Highland Lakes is solely residential and will ultimately be home to thousands of people that live in a monument to Stepfordian socio-economic and Republican homogeneity.

Shoal Creek-Stonegate Farms

View Larger Map of Shoal Creek and Stonegate

The final Higley 1000 neighborhood is Shoal Creek, another gated golf community and the adjacent newly constructed gated community of Stonegate. After more than twenty years of development, only about 90 of the 230 large wooded lots in Shoal Creek have had houses constructed on them. The development includes suburban Shelby County’s answer to Versailles, an over-the-top 45,000 square foot (empty) chateau built by a local entrepreneur. I think it’s visible from space. Years ago, Shoal Creek’s golf course gained some unwanted national attention when the PGA threatened to cancel a golf tournament at the club unless it was integrated. A token Black guy was recruited, given a membership, and the PGA was happy. The Club was technically integrated and the tournament proceeded. The token Black guy reported in a recent newspaper article that he was treated well at the club, but, unfortunately he died recently. Never fear though for Shoal Creek’s integration as they have found another Black guy to replace him that doesn’t caddy or mow the fairways.

The Village of Mount Laurel

Although not a Higley 1000 neighborhood, there is one newly developing community that merits mentioning. If you’re a fan of New Urbanist design principles, Mt. Laurel is a planned community in the middle stages of development on the far urban fringe of the metro area. Yes, suburban fringe, auto dependent New Urbanist design is a oxymoron, but it’s pretty. The question I would havd for the developers of Mt. Laurel is: when you jettison any pretension at having a mixed income community and build on the auto dependent fringe, can you still call yourself “New Urbanist”? Sales have been slow in spite of a charming and unusual design aesthetic. The general consensus is that it’s a bit pricey.. and no more than a cute architectural conceit for the upper-middle class.

Homewood: Birmingham’s Coolest Suburb

And finally, a word about one of my favorite of Birmingham’s suburbs, Homewood. Ideally located in the metro area, Homewood is a predominately lower-middle class suburb adjacent to Mountain Brook and Vestavia Hills. Most of Homewood is made up of well-maintained bungalows and small homes and it has a significant number of rental apartments. Thanks to a strong sales tax base, Homewood has managed to maintain a good school system and has continued to attract young families that have turned vast tracts of forgettable bungalows into beautifully remodeled houses in tidy wooded neighborhoods.

Homewood has two very interesting upscale neighborhoods: Mayfair & Hollywood. Hollywood has a wonderful collection of stuccoed, flat roofed houses built in the 1920s that have been remodeled for the the 21st Century. I love Hollywood: great architecture and a great location. Mayfair is more traditional, with its rolling, heavily wooded landscape, it share’s Hollywood’s ideal location for getting anywhere in Birmingham.

In Summary….

Birmingham is a very interesting town with a wide array of housing choices. This is but the first of my essays on Birmingham. After all, it has been my home town for 12 years and as an Urban Geographer, I have much to say about my adopted home. It is my fervent hope that I will be able to use my web site to express my critical thinking about the metro area.. something that is woefully absent from the boosterism so characteristic of what one finds published locally. The Birmingham News, an achingly Conservative newspaper does a fairly good job of covering the city and bankrupt county, but sounds like a the local arm of the Chamber of Commerce when covering the suburbs. I hope that my website counters the flackery and drivel that passes for journalism about the suburbs of our fair metro area.